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Constitution
TITLE I Sole Chapter Fundamental Statements Article 1. The Republic of _____ is irrevocably and forever free and independent from any domination or protection by a foreign power. Article 2. It shall never be the patrimony of any person or of any family. Article 3. The government of the Republic of _____ is and always shall be democratic, representative, responsible, and alternating. Article 4. Political power resides in the people, who exercise it directly through election, initiative, and referendum, and indirectly through their representatives in the government of the State. Article 5. No person or assembly of persons has authority to arrogate the title or representation of the people, to usurp its rights, or to make demands in its name. Violation of this precept constitutes a crime. Article 6. The government of the Republic is exercised by the legislative branch, the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the electoral branch. Article 7. In the organization of the powers and institutions of the State, the principle of minority representation is established. Article 8. The branches of the government shall function harmoniously in accomplishing the aims of the State. In the exercise of their particular functions, they are limited and independent. Article 9. No magistracy, or person, or assembly of persons, not even under the pretext of extraordinary circumstances, is empowered to assume any other authority or rights than those that have been expressly conferred upon them by the laws. Every act in contravention of this article is void. Article 10. Spanish is the national and official language of the State. Article 11. The State has no official religion. Article 12. The city of _____ is the capital of the Republic and the permanent seat of the branches of the government. Article 13. This Constitution is the supreme law of the Nation. The treaties, conventions, and other international agreements ratified and exchanged, and the laws, make up the national positive law, in the order of precedence in which they are listed. Article 14. The Republic recognizes the principles of international law; it condemns wars of aggression or of conquest and any form of colonialism or imperialism; it accepts the pacific settlement of international disputes by juridical means; and it proclaims its respect for human rights and the sovereignty of peoples. It hopes to live in peace with all nations and to maintain friendly cultural and trade relations with them on the basis of juridical equality, of nonintervention in internal affairs, and of the self-determination of peoples. The Republic may become a party to international multilateral systems of development, cooperation, and security. Article 15. Navigation on the international rivers is free to ships of all flags. It shall also be free on internal rivers, subject to any regulations issued by the competent authority. Article 16. The principles, guarantees, rights, and obligations established in this Constitution may not be altered by the laws that regulate their exercise. Any law, decree, regulation, or other act of authority that is contrary to its provisions is null and void. TITLE II Chapter I The National Territory Article 17. The national territory is that which belonged to the Viceroyalty of _____ before the political transformation initiated in 1820, with the modifications resulting from treaties validly concluded by the Republic. It also includes with the same status the adjacent islands, keys, headlands, banks, the submerged lands, the territorial sea and the continental shelf, as well as the air space, the stratosphere, and the entire undersea area of its sovereign domain according to international law. Article 18. The national territory is indivisible, inalienable, and imprescriptible. It may never be ceded, transferred, or leased or alienated in any way, even partially or temporarily, to a foreign power. Foreign States may acquire, within a specified area, under guarantee of reciprocity and with limitations established by law, only real property that is necessary for the seat of their diplomatic and consular representation. The acquisition of real property by international organizations may be authorized only in accordance with conditions and restrictions established by law. In al these cases sovereignty over the land is retained. Chapter II Departmental Administration Article 19. For purposes of political organization the territory is divided into departments, and these into municipalities. The law shall establish the manner in which judicial and administrative decentralization is to take place. Article 20. The law may merge existing departments, change their boundaries, create new departments, and authorize compensation or cession of territories among bordering developments, taking into account the physical and demographic characteristics, the means of communication, and the most desirable policy based on economic, social, cultural, and national defense considerations. Article 21. The capital of the Republic is independent of any departmental territory. The law shall establish its limits. Article 22. The political administration of each department shall be under the direction of a prefect appointed by the President of the Republic. In each department, there shall be the police judges deemed necessary, likewise appointed by the President of the Republic. The qualifications of these officials and their powers and duties shall be determined by law. Chapter III Municipal Administration Article 23. The municipal councils shall enjoy economic and administrative autonomy, subject to the supervision of the executive branch. The law shall determine the procedure for guaranteeing this autonomy to the municipalities both in the political sphere as well as in the juridical, economic, and administrative spheres. Article 24. The municipalities shall be governed by municipal councils, composed of a mayor, a councilman, and a treasurer, who shall be elected with their respective alternates by direct popular vote for a term of three years. Article 25. To be a member of a municipal council it is necessary to be over twenty-one years of age, a citizen in the exercise of one's rights, a layman, have resided in the town for at least one year, and have no debts outstanding to the national treasury, municipal treasury, or the local social welfare board. Article 26. The cases and forms in which members of the municipal councils shall be replaced shall be determined by law. Article 27. The municipalities shall have exclusive competence in the government and administration of commercial interests, particularly those matters related to their assets and revenues and, in accordance with the law, in matters of urban development, food supply, education and culture, health care and social welfare, widows' and orphans' funds, traffic, tourism, and municipal inspection and police. The law may also authorize the establishment and operation of services of a national or departmental nature within the jurisdiction of the municipalities. Article 28. The law may establish different systems for the organization, government, and administration of the municipalities, taking into account the conditions with respect to population, economic development, geographical location, and other factors that determine their development. Article 29. Each city or town shall be the seat of a municipality and the obligatory headquarters of its authorities. Article 30. The municipal councils are authorized to decree local laws and to impose local taxes that do not affect the incentives established by the General Law on Use of Natural Resources or the Law for Protection and Stimulation of Industrial Development. The tax schedules and budgets of the municipal councils must be approved by the executive branch. Article 31. Municipalities shall have the following revenues: (1) The proceeds from their communal lands and their own property; (2) Excise taxes from the use of their property and services; (3) Licenses on industry, commerce and vehicles, and taxes on urban real property and public entertainment; (4) Fines imposed by municipal authorities and others attributed to them by law; (5) Departmental or national subsidies and donations; and (6) Any other special taxes, excises and contributions that are imposed according to law. Article 32. The property and revenue of the municipalities belong to them exclusively and enjoy the same guarantees as the property and income of private individuals. No power of the State may encumber such property or income or grant exemptions from taxes payable to the municipalities. Article 33. The funds of the municipalities shall be applied exclusively to services of the administration of the corresponding community. Article 34. Real property of the municipalities is imprescriptible. Article 35. The mayors of the municipalities shall be free to appoint the employees subordinate to them, in accordance with the law. Article 36. It is prohibited to establish barriers or limitations to traffic between municipalities, as well as to decree intermunicipal transit or transport taxes under any name, that burden or interfere with the free circulation of goods, persons, or vehicles. However, taxes on local production payable to the municipal treasurers may be established by law. Article 37. The staff members of the municipal councils shall be jointly and severally responsible for any abuses they may commit in the performance of their duties. Excepted from this rule are members who dissent from the acts that gave rise to the responsibility. Article 38. The municipalities shall be entitled to proportional participation in the profits obtained by the State from the exploitation of natural resources granted to individuals in their respective jurisdictions. This principle shall be regulated by law. Article 39. The executive power may intervene in the affairs of the municipalities in the following cases: (1) At the request of the municipal council; (2) Because the disintegration of the municipal council makes it impossible for it to function; (3) When there is a budgetary deficit for two consecutive years; or (4) In the case of serious irregularity in certain limited circumstances determined by law. Such intervention shall not be prolonged beyond ninety days. In case of disintegration of the council, elections to constitute the new elective authorities shall be held within that period of time. If the intervention results in the termination of the duties of the authorities, the elections to replace them shall be held within sixty days from the date of such termination. TITLE III Chapter I Nationality Article 40. ______ nationality is acquired by birth or by naturalization. Article 41. The following are _____ by birth: (1) Those born in the territory of _____. Children of aliens in the service of their governments are excepted, unless the child is registered in the Civil Registry by the will of the person having patria potestas over the minor while the latter is under age, or by his own will within three years following his eighteenth birthday; (2) Children of a _____ father or mother, born abroad, when they have _____ nationality by the law of the place of birth, or, having the right to choose, they elect to be _____; or from the time they reside in _____, provided they have not chosen the other nationality or, if they have, by renouncing it. Such persons are _____ even for the purposes for which the Constitution or the laws require birth in national territory; (3) Children of _____ born abroad, provided that, at the time, the father or the mother were in the service of the Republic in a foreign country, even for the purposes for which the Constitution or the laws require birth in national territory; (4) Infants of unknown parentage found in _____ territory; (5) Those born aboard _____ aircraft or seacraft, outside the jurisdiction of another State, with the exception established in paragraph (1) of this Article. Article 42. The following are _____ by naturalization: (1) Foreigners who obtain certificates of naturalization from the Ministry of Foreign Relations; (2) A foreign woman who marries a _____ man and has or establishes her domicile within the national territory; and (3) Foreign infants legally adopted by _____. Article 43. Neither marriage nor its dissolution shall affect the nationality of the spouses or their children. Article 44. _____ nationality is lost: (1) By voluntary naturalization in a foreign country. A native _____ who loses it in this way shall recover his _____ nationality if at any time he returns to _____; (2) By cancelation of the certificate of naturalization; (3) By the voluntary absence of a naturalized _____ from the territory for more than five consecutive years, unless he shows that he has remained bound to the country; (4) When naturalized persons are convicted of treason against the country or they propagate political doctrines or ideologies that tend to destroy the republican or democratic form of government. In such cases, nationality may not be recovered. The law shall regulate all matters pertaining to naturalization. Article 45. No naturalized _____ may carry out, on behalf of _____, diplomatic functions in his country of origin. Article 46. The obligations of _____ are: (1) To comply with and obey this Constitution and the laws, as well as the decrees, resolutions, and other acts of authority that, in the exercise of their functions, the legitimate organs of the public powers may enact; (2) To honor and defend the fatherland, and to safeguard and protect the interests of the Nation; (3) To see that their children or wards, under fifteen years of age, attend public or private schools to obtain primary education during the time prescribed by the General Law on Public Education; (4) To earn their living through a lawful activity; (5) To contribute with their work to the overall development of the nation and its spiritual, moral, material, and cultural aggrandizement; and (6) To contribute to the public expenditures in the proportional and equitable manner provided by law. Article 47. _____ shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. In time of peace no foreigner can serve in the National Guard nor in the police or public security forces. Article 48. _____ cannot demand indemnity from the state for injuries to their person or property caused by acts that were not performed by legitimate officials in the exercise of their functions. Chapter II Foreigners Article 49. Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualifications set forth in Articles 41 and 42. Article 50. Foreigners enjoy in _____ all the civil rights and guarantees that are granted to _____, with the restrictions established by law. They are bound to obey the laws, to respect the authorities, and to pay all the regular and special taxes to which _____ are subject. Article 51. Foreigners are prohibited from intervening, directly or indirectly, in the national or international political activities of the country. For violating this provision, without prejudice to any liability that may be incurred, they may be expelled without trial by the President of the Republic in Council of Ministers, unless the foreigner has a _____ spouse or a child by a _____, recognized prior to the events that led to the expulsion. Article 52. Foreigners may not make claims or demand indemnification of any kind from the State except in the cases and in the manner in which Nicaraguans may do so. Article 53. The rules and conditions for the expulsion of foreigners from national territory, as well as the cases in which they may be denied the right to enter or remain in the country, shall be determined by law. Article 54. Foreigners may not resort to diplomatic channels except in case of denial of justice. The fact that a decision is unfavorable to the claimant is not to be understood as a denial of justice. Those who violate this provision shall lose the right to reside in the country. Article 55. Foreigners may not be extradited for political crimes or for common crimes related thereto. The characteristics of each type are determined by law and treaties. Chapter III Citizenship Article 56. The following are citizens: (1) _____ over twenty-one years of age; (2) _____ over eighteen years of age who know how to read and write or are married; and (3) _____ under eighteen years of age who have completed secondary education. Article 57. The following are prerogatives of citizens: (1) To vote in popular elections; (2) To be voted for, for all offices subject to popular election, and to be appointed to any other employment or commission, if they have the qualifications established by law; (3) To associate together to discuss the political affairs of the country; (4) To bear arms in the National Guard in the defense of the Republic and its institutions, under the provisions prescribed by law; and (5) To exercise in all cases the right of petition. Article 58. The following are obligations of citizens: (1) TITLE IV Rights and Guarantees TITLE V The Legislative Branch TITLE VI The Executive Branch Chapter III The Council of Ministers Article. For the conduct of business corresponding to the executive branch there shall be Ministers of State. The law shall specify their number, their titles, and the departments of the administration corresponding to each. Under the authority of the President of the Republic, they shall be in charge of the direction and management of the public services assigned to the respective administrative departments. Article. The Ministers in assembly form the Council of Ministers. Its organization and function are determined by law. The Council of Ministers has its President. Article. The President of the Republic appoints and removes the President of the Council of Ministers. He appoints and removes the other Ministers, on the proposal and with the agreement, respectively, of the President of the Council of Ministers. Article. To be appointed Minister a person must have the same qualifications as for a senator. Relatives of the President of the Republic within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity may not be Ministers. Artice. There are no Ministers pro tempore. The President of the Republic may, on the proposal of the President of the Council of Ministers, entrust to a Minister, who retains his own Ministry, the charge of another in the event of vacancy or impediment on the part of the serving Minister, but this charge may not be prolonged for more than thirty days or be transferred successively to the other Ministers. Article. The President of the Republic convokes extraordinarily and presides over the Council of Ministers; he has the right to preside over it when it is convoked ordinarily or extraordinarily by the President of the Council of Ministers. Any decision of the Council of Ministers requires the affirmatory votes of the majority of its members. Article. The Council of Ministers has a deliberative vote and a consultative vote in the cases specified by law. Article. The President of the Republic adjusts, with the consultative vote of the Council of Ministers, conflicts of competence among the Ministers. His decision is countersigned by the President of the Council of Ministers. Article. The decrees, orders, and rulings of the President of the Republic, with the exception of those indicated in sections _____ and _____ of this Article _____, must be countersigned by the appropriate Minister or Ministers in order to be valid. Article. The President of the Council of Ministers, who may be a Minister without portfolio, has the following duties: (1) To be the authorized spokesperson for the government, after the President of the Republic; (2) To coordinate the duties of the other Ministers, in accordance with the President of the Republic’s instructions; (3) To coordinate relations between the executive branch and Congress; (4) To countersign the decree-laws issued by the President of the Republic in the event of emergency or public necessity; and (5) To exercise any other powers assigned to him under the Constitution and the law. Article. The powers and duties of the Ministers, in their respective portfolios and in accordance with the laws and regulations of the executive branch, are as follows: (1) To enforce the Constitution, laws, decrees, and resolutions; (2) To present to Congress such projects of laws, decrees, and resolutions as the President of the Republic may deem appropriate; (3) To effect, within the limits of their functions, the payment of recognized debts of the State; (4) To grant leaves of absence to the employees of their departments; (5) To propose the appointment or discharge of employees of their divisions; (6) To supervise administrative functions and adopt the necessary measures for their proper conduct, and to impose disciplinary penalties; and (7) To sign and communicate the resolutions of the executive branch. Article. The President of the Council of Ministers, on assuming his functions, shall attend the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate separately, in company with the other Ministers, and shall explain the general policy of the government. Article. The Council of Ministers in full, or the Ministers separately, may attend the sessions of Congress or of the chambers and participate in the debates, with a voice but no vote. Article. The attendance of the Council of Ministers, or of any of the Ministers, is obligatory if Congress or either of the chambers calls for them in order to interpellate them. Article. The interpellation shall be made in writing. For its acceptance it requires one fifth of the votes of the sitting representatives. Article. Congress, or the chamber, shall indicate the day and hour for the Ministers to reply to the interpellations. Article. Either of the chambers may pass judgment on the conduct of Ministers by proposing that Congress, in joint session shall declare that their acts of administration or of government are censured. Whenever motions to this effect are presented, the chamber in which they are made shall be specially convoked, within a period of not over forty-eight hours, to decide upon its course of action. If the motion is approved by a majority of those present, notice shall be given to Congress, which shall be called within forty-eight hours. If upon the first convocation of Congress there are not a sufficient number of members present to hold a meeting, a second convocation shall be made and Congress shall be considered organized with the number of legislators who attend. Article. The censure, adopted by an absolute majority of the full membership of Congress, shall require the immediate resignation of the Minister or Ministers affected by it. The President of the Republic shall accept the resignation within the subsequent 72 hours. The removed Minister shall be barred from serving as a Minister for the remainder of that presidential term. Article. The nonapproval of a ministerial initiative does not oblige the Minister to resign, except in the case of his having made approval a matter of confidence. Article. The exercise of the functions of a deputy or senator are suspended while he holds office as a Minister. Article. The Ministers may not exercise any other public function, or any professional activities. They shall not intervene, directly or indirectly, in the direction or management of any private undertaking or association. Article. The Ministers are responsible civilly and criminally for their own acts and for the presidential acts which they countersign. Ministers shall not be exempt from responsibility for crime even if they invoke the written or verbal order of the President of the Republic. Unless they resign immediately, all Ministers are collectively responsible for offenses against or infractions of the Constitution and of the laws which the President of the Republic commits, or which are agreed on in the Council of Ministers, even though they refrain from voting. Article. The Ministers shall present an annual report on their actions to the President of the Republic. For their services, they shall receive a salary established by law, and while they are in office they shall be subject to the same incompatibilities as deputies and senators. Article. Upon termination of their office, Ministers remain subject to six months' residence, and may not leave the territory of the Republic except by authorization granted by an absolute majority of votes of the full membership of Congress meeting in joint session. TITLE VII The Judicial Branch TITLE VIII The Electoral Branch TITLE IX Sole Chapter The Office of the Attorney General TITLE X Public Finance TITLE XI Sole Chapter Public Officials and Employees TITLE XII Sole Chapter The Armed Forces TITLE XIII Sole Chapter Indian Communities TITLE XIV Sole Chapter Agrarian Reform TITLE XV Sole Chapter Amendment of the Constitution TITLE XVI Sole Chapter Final and Transitory Provisions